1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an element for mechanical and electrical coupling of a passive and/or active electrical unit to an electrical circuit unit. Such elements comprise at least one electrical contact element for the electrical contacting of the passive and/or active electrical unit with the electrical circuit unit and a first side facing toward the passive and/or active electrical unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
The connection of electrical components, such as active and/or passive electrical units, to electrical circuit units plays an especially important role in electrical engineering. In the following, electric or electronic circuits are referred to as electrical circuit units. While the assembly of electrical and/or electromechanical components (switches, lamps, motors . . . ) into a functioning configuration is referred to as an electrical circuit—the function of the circuit being produced by the electrical current which flows through the components in a closed loop (electric circuit), the assembly of electrical and particularly electronic components (such as diodes and transistors) into a (functioning) configuration is referred to as an electronic circuit. An electronic circuit differs from an electrical circuit by the use of electronic components.
Electrical circuit units are located on circuit boards, for example. A circuit board, also referred to as a printed wiring board, printed circuit board, or etched wiring board (printed wiring board=PWB, printed circuit board=PCB, or etched wiring board=EWB), is used for the mechanical fastening and the electrical connection of electronic components. The connection lines are usually produced by etching from a thin layer of conductive material on an insulating base plate. The components are soldered onto these printed conductors. Circuit boards comprise insulating material which may also be flame retardant. Examples of such materials are phenol resin, epoxide resin, glass or glass fibers, Teflon, ceramics, LTCC, HTCC, or polyester.
A secure electrical connection is of great importance in electrical circuit units, to avoid short-circuits, loose contacts, or other malfunctions. For this purpose, fixed electrical connections are important, which are typically made possible by electrically conductive soldering, welding, and/or bonding processes. In such processes, electrically conductive elements of such electrical circuit units are connected to components and/or multiple electrical circuit units are connected to one another to produce entire networks of different circuits. Individual components are also assembled into electrical circuit units by such processes.
Surface-mounting technology (English surface-mounting technology, abbreviated SMT) has developed into the most important method which is most favorable for processing technology in this case. Surface-mounted components (English surface-mounted device, abbreviated SMD or SMD components) are soldered directly on to the circuit board (printed circuit board) using solderable terminal surfaces. This processing is therefore also called assembling, although the assembling also comprises other work steps besides only placing the components on the circuit board. This assembly comprises at least the following steps:                application of soldering paste (a mixture of metal beads (for example: tin beads) and flux) or adhesive to the circuit board        assembling the components        soldering the circuit board or curing the adhesive        
A secure connection of components to electrical circuit units is especially important in medical implants, because implants must operate reliably and may not be maintained or explanted easily. An implant is an artificial material implanted in the body, which is to remain therein permanently or at least for a long period of time. Implants for stimulating the human or animal organism and/or sensing human or animal physiological signals are viewed as electromedical implants in the meaning of the present invention. For example, these are cardiac pacemakers, implantable defibrillators, cardioverters, neurostimulators, or brain pacemakers and artificial hearts. Electromedical implants contain at least one electrical circuit unit, which is capable of analyzing sensed human or animal signals, generating electrical stimulation pulses, storing data from the sensed signals and the stimulation pulses, and/or transmitting the data from the sensed signals and the stimulation pulses out of the body, and at least one passive or active electrical unit.
In such electromedical implants the communication out of the body is—for the above-mentioned reasons of the maintenance or even the programming and/or transmission of physiological states and signals or technical data of the implant—of predominant significance. Such an implant may only be externally programmed by these apparatuses and tailored to the patient and the quality of life may thus be increased. The transmission of data of the implant and threatening or notable states of the body to a treating physician is also important. Only in this way may the physician ensure optimum treatment. For this reason, the above-mentioned electromedical implants have communication means, which allow wireless communication, almost as standard equipment as one of the passive and/or active electrical units. For example, such communication means comprise antennas for near-field or far-field telemetry, which may be coils of any type, above all air-core coils, for example.
Such passive and/or active electrical units may additionally or alternatively comprise one or more of the following components, for example:                capacitors,        batteries and/or accumulators        one or more further electrical circuit units, which are capable of analyzing sensed human or animal signals, generating electrical stimulation pulses, storing data from the sensed signals and the stimulation pulses, and/or transmitting the data from the sensed signals and the stimulation pulses out of the body,        active and/or passive storage units        filtered or unfiltered feedthroughs        
Placing passive and/or active electrical units using so-called mounting frames in a housing is known. However, these frames are only used for the defined positioning of the units in this housing and do not offer any further possibilities for electrical and/or mechanical coupling to one another.
Furthermore, providing coils as communication units in electromedical implants, which are welded into laminates—i.e. into plastic films—is known. Two electrical terminal strips are led out of the films, which are electrically contacted manually with an electrical circuit unit via corresponding electrical contacts, in that they are mechanically soldered on manually. This film is connected to the circuit via a gluing method, for example, to thus protect the relatively sensitive terminal strips from being torn off. The disadvantage of this solution is that the production may not be automated, because the laminates may be damaged during SMT processes, for example. The terminal strips are also not or not easily electrically connectable to the circuit via automated processes. In addition, very many work steps having greatly varying parameters are required for the production, because of which the production processes are very time-consuming, work intensive, and thus costly. The electromedical implants cited in this approach are known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 4,441,498.
An improvement of the cited solution is presented in WO 2004/039450. A frame element made of a solid plastic material is situated around the communication coil. The terminal strips of the communication coil are electrically contacted and mechanically fastened to contact elements, which are located on the frame element, the contact elements being situated on the outer edge of the frame element in such a way that they also allow an electrical contact to glass-ceramic bushings. The electrical contacting between the communication coil and the electrical circuit unit occurs via a soldering process, in that the contact elements of the frame element are soldered to the circuit. The disadvantage of this solution is that there is only a punctual mechanical fastening between the electrical circuit unit and the frame element having the communication coil, which may easily result in damage and/or tearing off of the contacting in the event of shocks of the electromedical implants. To remove this disadvantage, it has already been described in WO 2004/039450 that in a further work step, planar gluing of the frame element and the communication unit located therein to both the electrical circuit unit and also to a half-shell of the hermetically sealed housing occurs. However, this solution conceals the disadvantage that again an additional work step must be performed, which may not be automated and even requires the application of a further joining technology. The connection to the hermetically sealed housing conceals additional disadvantages, whose solution is not the object of the present invention, however.